Nintendo Switch: Set Up Parental Control In 4 Easy Steps

The Nintendo Switch is considered one of the safest online gaming platforms for children these days. However, like any online interaction, it still carries some potential risks.

Enter the Nintendo Switch Parental Control app–its very own parental control system designed for parents to monitor, control, and restrict their kids' activities on the console.

If you’re thinking of installing the parental control app on your child’s Switch console, we’ve got everything you need to know right here!

Parental Controls and Restrictions

Let’s start with the standard parental controls:

Daily Playtime Limits

If you use other parental control apps for your children’s devices, you probably already consider their screen time limits as one of the most important features. The Nintendo Switch Parental Control app offers a similar feature through its Daily Playtime Limit.

Once the daily playtime limit is reached, the console will not automatically shut down. However, you can remotely suspend the game your child is playing using the Suspend Software option.

You can set different time limits per day or disable them on specific days. Additionally, you can set Bedtime Alarms to notify your child when their playtime is over.

This lets you customize their playtime limits–for instance, by allowing more time on the weekends or permitting later bedtimes on non-school nights. And if your kid deserves unlimited playtime on a particular day, there’s even a button for that!

You can disable playtime limits for a day with just one click, and the settings will automatically revert to the original limits the following day.

Content Filtering

The Nintendo Switch parental control offers predetermined setups for content restrictions by age group: Teen, Pre-teen, Child, and Custom. These settings include content filters, software restrictions, and communication restrictions that correspond to the appropriate age groups.

Since the Nintendo Switch is mainly a gaming device, these age-appropriate restrictions filter the games your kids can play based on their ESRB ratings (think MTRCB ratings but for games).

• Child: Games rated EC (Early Childhood) and E (Everyone)
• Pre-teen: Games rated E10+ (Everyone 10+)
• Teen: Games rated T (Teen)

If your kids use the console’s Album app as well, they will only be able to view images and videos that comply with their appropriate age restrictions.

Activity Monitoring

In addition to controlling the games they play and the content they consume, the Nintendo Switch parental control also provides you a summary report of their overall activities.

This periodic report tells you what games your kids are playing, which ones are their favorites, how much time they spend playing each game, and when they started playing those games.

These periodic activity reviews will be helpful if you want to make adjustments to your supervision and controls (and also help you know what kinds of games to buy them in the future).

Communication Restrictions

Messaging and Online Interactions

If you’ve read some of our previous articles on keeping your children safe online, you’ve probably already come across us saying that you should NEVER let them chat, call, or make any sort of contact online with people they don’t know in real life.

Internet predators often use online games and platforms designed for kids to target their victims, usually by pretending to be other kids innocently looking for online friends.

Nintendo Switch parental control lets you:

• Restrict your children’s online interactions to their real-life friends,
• Blacklist specific contacts, or
• Completely block all online communication (which is recommended for younger kids).

Online interaction settings can vary from game to game, so you can also adjust the settings and controls for each game individually.

Social Media

The Nintendo Switch allows your kids to connect their social media accounts to the console to share screenshots or posts. With the Parental Control app, you can restrict and control what your kids can post through the console.

How to Set Up Nintendo Switch Parental Controls

The Nintendo Switch Parental Control app is user-friendly, and it’s super easy to install, set up, and navigate. It is also available for both iOS and Android. Here’s how you can set it up on your phone:

Step 1: Download the Parental Control App

First, grab your kid’s console and go to the Settings menu. Then, select System Settings. Next, on the left panel, scroll down until you find Parental Controls.

Click on that, and it will ask you if you want to set up the parental controls using an app on your mobile device or directly on the console itself.

While it’s possible to set this up without installing the app on your phone, the app gives you access to the full range of parental control features we mentioned above, and it makes everything easier–so we recommend using it.

Go to your phone’s app store and download the Nintendo Switch Parental Control app.

Step 2: Set Up Your Account

Next, you’ll be asked to create your parent account. Just follow the prompts to create your Nintendo account. Once this process is finished, click the Select this account button. This will then reveal a registration code.

Step 3: Link the Switch Console

Now, grab your console again. In the parental control menu, you will see a button saying, “I have the app installed, what’s next?”

You’ll be prompted to enter your registration code, so just enter the registration code sent to your phone and click Register to link the two devices.

Step 4: Set Up Your Controls

Now that the console is linked, you can proceed with setting up your controls. Simply follow the prompts as they appear on your phone screen, and you’re all ready to go!

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